The University was founded in 1842 and the first Professor of Physics was hired in 1920. Prior to 1934 the department was devoted entirely to teaching service courses for other academic areas, and this remains an important part of our teaching function.

An M.S. degree program in physics was established in 1934, an undergraduate degree in 1937, and a Ph.D. program in 1939. The university became co-educational in 1972. The first major research efforts were the construction of a Van de Graaff electron accelerator in 1934 and a somewhat larger one in 1939. These were used in some important early work in the electrodisintegration of nuclei.

By the early 1940's the department had eight faculty members, all with Ph.D.'s. The major areas of research interest were nuclear physics, high-polymer (rubber) physics, theory, and electron emission from metallic surfaces. These remained the primary areas of interest until the early 1960's by which time the faculty had grown to about 20 members. With the retirement of senior faculty, research in high-polymers and in electron emission had come to an end by the early 1960's.

In the 1960's several faculty in high energy physics (both experimentalists and theorists) were hired. A small program in low temperature physics was started. An important development of this era was the establishment of the Nuclear Structure Laboratory with an eight-MEV tandem accelerator. During this period research in theoretical atomic physics developed which led to the hiring of experimentalists in this area during the 1970's and 1980's. In the 1980's several faculty members active in semiconductor physics were also added, and in the 1990's we began to develop an astrophysics faculty.

Today the department includes just under 40 teaching faculty members; 25 research and other faculty members as well as emeriti faculty; a number of specialists and postdoctoral researchers; roughly 90 graduate students and 50 undergraduates; and a number of supporting staff members. Whenever they needed to, the research groups have reinvented themselves and have successfully reset their focus towards the newest research directions.

Nuclear Physics: for instance, has been moving into Nuclear Astrophysics; this change was very successful and the group is well known and well funded.

Astrophysics: shows great progress as well. This area couples naturally into Notre Dame's new involvement with the Large Binocular Telescope and the Steward Observatory facilities. This area also includes the already mentioned, nuclear astrophysics (e.g. nucleosynthesis in the early universe and in supernovae) and particle astrophysics (e.g. missing mass in universe). The new Center for Astrophysics at Notre Dame University (CANDU) has been established and will serve as a focus for this effort. A new center involving nuclear astrophysics researchers at Notre Dame and Michigan State has also been established.

Biophysics: This area is very broad and ranges from atomic-scale understanding of biochemical process to pattern formation and complexity. We view this as a very promising and important area to move into. At least three faculty members are working in this area of interdisciplinary condensed-matter physics.

Internet and Network Studies: The focus of this research program is on the statistical description of the network topologies and the impact of the structure on the functioning of the network. Combining modern methods of theoretical statistical physics, computer simulations and experimental data analysis, the goal is to establish a general framework capable of explaining the emergence of scaling and order in these networks.

• We are encouraging the establishment of groups and centers that cross departmental and college boundaries. This often happens naturally, but also fits the current funding climate.
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